January’s deer cull at Ella Sharp Park and the Cascades Golf Course will probably not be the last.

It will be the fifth of five scheduled culls but Ella Sharp Park Board members and Summit Township Supervisor Jim Dunn said the program has been effective and should not end.

“There continues to be a need to keep things under control,” Dunn said.

Eighty deer per year, a total of 320, have been killed by sharpshooters in four years. Dunn said the impact was double or triple that because the deer did not reproduce and without the cull deer would be as plentiful as rabbits.

Ella Sharp Park Superintendent Eric Terrian said the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Environment considers culls that extend beyond five years management programs and lowers the number of deer that may be harvested.

But Terrian said he does not think that will happen in Jackson because of its large deer population. Last year, Jackson was third in the state in car-deer accidents with 1,779.

Park board members said without the cull, there would be more deer in the road and more deer in neighborhoods surrounding the park and the golf course.

Terrian and Dunn said they have heard mostly positive things about the cull, but the park board should host a public forum as it did five years ago so people can share their views.

Terrian said this year’s cull will be like culls in the past but quicker. He said last year it took eight days to kill 80 deer, but now that the state has lifted the ban on baiting it could be done in three or four days.